Nigeria: Questions surround latest bomb attack

Nigerian authorities claim Muslim extremists may have planted the bomb that was detonated at army barracks; no one has yet claimed responsibility.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nigerian Attack (photo credit: Associated Press)
Nigerian Attack
(photo credit: Associated Press)
ABUJA, Nigeria— Muslim extremists may have planted the bomb that struck an army barracks in Nigeria's capital, the country's president said Saturday, highlighting the dangers and confusion still gripping a nation beset by violence in recent weeks.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack Friday that killed at least four people and wounded 21 others celebrating New Year's Eve in the barrack's open-air beer garden and market. President Goodluck Jonathan promised those at a church service in Abuja, the oil-rich nation's capital, to find those responsible.
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Local police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said the number of injuries in the attack rose to 21, while four people had died. The state-run Nigerian Television Authority reported Friday night that 30 people had died after the blast.
The blasts come days after a similar attack struck a nation that remains uneasily divided between Christians and Muslims. On Christmas Eve, three bombs exploded in the central Nigerian city of Jos, killing dozens of people. That area has seen more than 500 die in religious and ethnic violence this year alone.
Members of a radical Muslim sect, known locally as Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the bombings and attacks on two churches in the northern city of Maiduguri the same night, killing at least six people.
Nigeria's capital has been struck already this year by violence. In October, a dual car bombing killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more during an Oct. 1 independence celebration in Abuja. The main militant group in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In his remarks during the church service, Jonathan said the Oct. 1 bombs bore similarities to explosives used in parts of the Niger Delta. He said Friday's bomb appeared to be "identical with the ones that happened in Jos."
However, the violence continues in a nation that remains a vital supplier of easily refined crude oil to the US. Unrest in the West African nation has affected oil prices in the past. Beyond that, Western diplomats worry ethnic, religious and political violence could hobble the nation of 150 million people just as it adjusts to democracy after years of military dictatorships and coups.